If you cannot write in cursive, then you are defective!

Who still writes in cursive?  I do and if you don't, then I think that there is something defective about you.

That age-old writing method you might never have used since fourth grade will no longer be taught in Indiana schools come fall, thanks to a memo from school officials. Instead, students will be expected to become proficient in keyboard use.

Seems like a smart move as being able to type efficiently is a vital skill in today's world, as opposed to knowing how to write cursive, which — like being able to churn butter and knowing how to hitch a horse to a wagon — is no longer needed.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/06/typing-beats-scribbling-indiana-schools-can-stop-teaching-cursive/#ixzz1RNWlstYd

New Florida Laws Went Into Effect on July 1.

Several new laws designed to advance alternatives to traditional public schools also will go into effect July 1.

1. One (HB 7107) directs the Department of Education to expand online learning options and require students who enter high school this fall to take at least one virtual course before they graduate.
2. Another (HB 1329) expands an existing voucher program that lets disabled students attend private schools at taxpayer expense to children with afflictions such as allergies, asthma and diabetes.
3. A third (SB 1546) offers more training and technical assistance to charter schools and longer contracts and other benefits to those with high performance ratings.
4. Another education-related law (SB 228) is designed to prohibit students from wearing "droopy drawers" but requiring school districts to pass dress codes that prohibit the wearing of clothing in a revealing or disruptive way.

One Dead And Two In Critical Condition

I was on the phone talking with Mary when this happened.  I was at the crash site the next day and saw no evidence that their brakes were applied.  I thought at the site that there is a strong possibility that the 16 year-old driver was texting when it happened. I was told that the event is still under investigation.

The street this happened on has a 30 mph speed limit.  Likely going faster than that when he hit the ditch and flipped.

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTMzMzUwNzg%3D

What will be the effect of the accident.  The driver will not need to be educated.  The two passengers many only be able to function at the level of the mentally handicapped.  There will be one funeral and the other two will be society's burden for the rest of their lives.

You really do not care. O' Ya!

166 million dollars was spent to build what would become a failing school soon after completed.

HOLIDAY — Anclote High School principal Monica Ilse has no illusions about her school's grade when the announcement comes in early December.


"It is going to be an F," Ilse said matter-of-factly during a recent campus tour. "We've accepted it. We're going to move on. Honestly, that old news."
Students, faculty and staff got the first inkling that the news would not be good for their year-old school back in the summer, with the release of various state and national test results. Among the signals:
• 7 percent of students taking Advanced Placement (AP) exams earned passing scores.

• 36 percent of students taking the FCAT reading exam scored at grade level or better.

• 34 percent of students in the lowest quartile made gains on the FCAT reading exam.

Ilse knew the school would have its struggles. Located in a high-poverty, high-crime area, Anclote High has 70 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Many of the children have family or social issues well beyond schooling that affect their performance.

I recall teaching in Saginaw, MI.  It was not uncommon for a high performing student to be threatened with violence if they scored high on an exam.  If they wanted to get home without injury, then they had to respond to test questions by answering many questions incorrectly.  I don't know if that is behind Anclote's 'F'.  It could be that it is known by a large percentage of the students that if they don't study and fail exams that  teachers will be blamed and potentially fired.

I doubt if most people care enough about was posted to have gotten to this point.  You are a lot like the students in a failing school.

A Path to School Ruin

source:  Diane Ravitch @ the Times

Gov. Rick Scott seems determined to ruin public education in Florida.  Not only is he devastating school budgets with multiple-billion-dollar cuts, but he is intent on crushing the morale of the state's teachers. One can't expect to improve the public schools while demeaning the professionals who work in them.

Scott approaches school reform as if public education were a government scam that needs to be privatized and as if teachers are lazy scoundrels who need a swift kick in the pants or the promise of a  bonus to motivate them.  He has a naive belief in the value of test scores that is not shared by the nation's testing experts.  So he is promoting the proliferation of privately managed charter schools to compete with neighborhood public schools, more testing of all subjects and at the same time, tying teachers' compensation and evaluation to there student's test scores.

[It was recently reported on local news that a record number of Florida's teachers are taking early retirement. They are getting out of the profession.  I wonder if those that had thought about the profession are not thinking about taking their professional development in a different direction. I look back on what I have done and think that I should have avoided the education profession.]

Will someone read this other than me.  I doubt it.

The eReader Revolution has no effect on illiterates.

I will be the first to admit, I love the smell of books. Books, bookstores, libraries – anywhere there is ink on paper draws me in. I always said I would never buy an eReader – but I was going on a cruise, and I didn’t want to add 20 pounds of books to my luggage. I caved in and bought one. What can I say – Kindle, I love you. My dramatic shift over to eReading got me thinking. Just how much has technology and social media changed the way we read and share books?

Virtual Schools (This information is not available to illiterates.)

Virtual Schools (passed)

Expands online school offerings and requires incoming high school students to take at least one online course before graduating. (SB 1620/HB 7197)

School Vouchers (This information is not available to illiterates.)

School Vouchers - Opportunity Scholarships (passed)

Allows more students to qualify to move to other public schools by expanding the definition of a "failing" school.   (SB 1822/HB 1331)

Teacher Tenure (This information is not available to illiterates.)

Bills became Florida Law that effect teachers.

Teacher evaluations will be based in part on student test scores and administrators will be able to more easily fire teachers with weak evaluations.  (SB 736/HB 7019)

Little Boys That Want to Become Professional Athletes

I have 4 boys in my family that wanted to become professional athletes then they were in grade school.  Three of them neglected academic.  Two of them were anatomically not correct for football or basketball: too short and small with no history of sport achievement in the family.  Two of the boys were adopted.  Both of them had fathers that were Ohio State football players.  They have the genetics but was something missing. They are now in their twenties and neither one of them became football players.

Both of my nephews squandered their public school opportunity.  Chris wanted to be a Architect. He was expelled from the local community college.  Josh became a mountain climber.  When they were in public school there father was on the school board and their mother was a Math teacher.

I knew when the boys were obsessed with sports that the probability of them being able to be professional and prospering was a low.  Josh, the mountain climber travels with his personals on his back and lives in a tent.  Of the four boys, they is only one that took education seriously.

I saw it unfolding and had no influence in effectively stopping what was about to happen.  When sports have a high priority, then the long term consequences can be devastating. Give sports a low priority.

Did they read the book?

Hopefully you have a teenager that should be reading.  I have wonderful books that contain valuable knowledge that I  reference. You likely know of a book with knowledge that would benefit a teenager you care about. But, if you gave them the book, how would you know if they read it?

Try this.  About two thirds into the book write these words. [Congratulations, you have read enough of this book to have earned the right to receive $50.  Email me or phone and we will have lunch.  At that time, I will give you the $50.  This offer expires on this date. (include an expiration date)  Sign.]

Now, give them the book and wait.  After the expiration date,  if you have not heard from them, you make contact.  I am sure you will know what to say.

Afterwards, let us know what happened by posting your experience on this Blog.

Prerequisite Knowledge

Prerequisite: something required beforehand.  In the case of knowledge, it is knowledge that is required to understand what is being taught.  One part of that would be vocabulary.  If you did not know the definition of prerequisite, then you would not know what I am writing about.  If you were in a classroom where I was talking about the importance of prerequisite knowledge and did now its meaning, you would not know what I was talking about there either.  Hopefully, you understand the importance of prerequisite knowledge.

I watch and listen to experienced professional educators teaching students. Sometimes they are middle school students and the teacher is presenting a lesson that a college student level.  Is there any wonder why their students have a bewildered look on their face?

Knowledge is incremental. Do I have to explain that too?  Figure it out.

I cringe when I see teachers overshooting their students. Is there any wonder why standardized test scores are declining?

This is Flounder.

Flounder and I go to the Home Depot. We go to a lot a places.  His favorite place to go  is to Key Vista nature park where he gets to run on the beach and met other dogs.

He is almost as smart as a 5th grader.

Recently Pasco county spent $4.3 million on Math text books.

I was issued text books beginning when I was in Jr. High and expected to study them, bring them to class, care for them (writing or drawing in them was not acceptable) and return them at the end of the school year in a condition that indicated only normal use.  If something was done to the text that condemned it, then it was destroyed and the student was billed for the cost of the text.  (If someone had written F**** you on a critical page, then the text was destroyed.) 

I witnessed the end of my nephew's 9th grade year when text books were suppose to be returned.  Every text that he had been issued was gone.  I over hear his mother, a math teacher in the same school giving a long explanation that resulted in not having to pay for the missing texts. 

I've been wondering how long the text had been missing.  Whatever that length of time; that was how long it had been since Josh had not been studying his text books and doing assigned home work.  He graduated that year and eventually graduated from High School.  He is now a professional mountain climber.

I Wonder ....

There seems to be nothing positive to write about.  Every education seed has something wrong with it. School will be starting soon.  I sure hope you have used your summer wisely. This school year appears to be more challenging than last. I would not want to be a student, teacher or an administrator. I'm really somewhat of a spectator to a tragedy.

Education Is The Purpose Of Testing.

That statement should be obviously wrong.  Florida school administrators and politicians have had an obsession with testing every since Florida's governor Jeb Bush buddied-up with a Florida college professor in the Department of Education.  Now the purpose of education has been lost.  Hopefully, it will be rediscovered.

Bay area school letter grades released.

School district's FCAT grade slips

Your pay, your career, your economic future is dependent on a test score: a test you did not write and a test you did not take.  Strangers wrote the test, administered the test and scored the test.

The Pluses of Getting It Wrong

I had a college math professor who would pose a question on a topic we hadn't learned yet.  We would then spend the next half-hour trying to collectively come up with the solution as he shot down wrong answer after wrong answer.  If you are so intent on find the answer, when you finally get it, it sticks!

Very Troubling

More than two-thirds of Texas schoolchildren flunked the state's physical fitness test this year, a troubling trend that doctors worry could get worse with the Legislature loosening the requirements for high school gym class.  You can read the full story at this link.  Most Texas Students Failing

Constructionism is very important.

I'll explain later.

Baseline Test Score

The first thing you need to do is take a full-length diagnostic test in the most testlike conditions possible.